Time to Breathe...

Over the years, we have found that getting away for vacation is essential.  Taking time to breathe away from everything.  This was such a special vacation with my entire family, possibly our last for a while.  My sister, Joy, and her family will most likely be moving to Ghana, Africa before the next summer.  It was bittersweet.

Here is a beach-load of pictures with a little recap at the end.

Our time at the Outer Banks was unforgettable.  From flying kites on Jockey's Ridge with the sun setting along the sound to digging for shark's teeth at the NC Aquarium, our family vacation was everything we had hoped for.  Being there with my parents, two sisters and our families brought back many childhood memories spent along the beaches of Japan.  We will never forget the family meals together, eating the fish caught by the guys & Chloe one morning, the several walks along the beach and through the neighborhood, trying out a new frozen yogurt place (the cutest place ever!), date nights for the couples, finishing the 700 piece puzzle, swimming along the sound, family devotions, discovering Coquina Beach with all its shells, eating mexican food out, and the list could go on...  Now summer is officially over.  Fall is in the air and change is on the horizon.  

Overwhelmed...

The word of the week:  overwhelmed.  Not really sure why.  Overwhelmed at my closet... overwhelmed by our school room (what a mess!)... overwhelmed at lesson planning, at the painting that needs to be done downstairs... my neck and shoulders tighten as I type the words.  The image of Julia Roberts backing down the aisle in the movie, Runaway Bride, comes to mind.  That's me!  I just want to run away from the clutter.  I think that's why my Goodwill run earlier in the week was so therapeutic.  So much to do, yet never enough time or so I think.

I'm clinging to the verse in second Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  My devotions this week have been such sweet reminders of this amazing grace.  Remembering that giving thanks is an action and rejoicing is a verb.  "While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving." - Ann Voskamp

I must give thanks.  For in the messes, there is life.  

Give thanks for the froggy needing to be sewn...

for the mums needing to be planted...

for the rooms almost completed...

for the ministry that keeps my man on his toes...

for the discovery of my camera charger...

for the last days at the pool...

for walks to the pond as the sun begins to set...

for slowing down enough to look through a different lens at what is really important...

"Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization.  Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won't see it." - Annie Dillard